As we approach that Rockwellian summer holiday celebrating the birth of our great nation a tiny island that once loomed large in the never-ending war to keep Americans free has popped up in the news again.
Japan reinstituted the name Iwo To, as it was originally called before Japanese officers mistakenly called it Iwo Jima. Either way, the almost 7,000 marines who died there in some of the most Hellish fighting of the war are still dead (as are the almost 21,000 Japanese defenders.)
US military personnel are currently searching the island for the remains of Sgt. Bill Genaust a marine cameraman who also captured that iconic (second) flag raising on Mount Suribachi and like almost half the men involved in either flag raising, failed to survive the battle.
Unlike civilian AP photographer Joe Rosenthal, who snapped the famous still photo, Genaust was a marine who also carried a rifle. And when things got tough he chose the rifle over the movie camera. Days after the Mount Suribachi triumph, with the battle still in doubt, he used his camera light to help fellow marines peer into a cave. He was killed and his body never recovered. The cave forgotten…until now.
And Charles Lindberg (not the aviator) died Sunday. He was one of the marines who helped raise the first flag on Mount Suribachi.
Although smaller than the more famous second raising it was nevertheless visible enough to marines hunkered down on the beach and navy ships off shore to set off a cacophony of celebratory cheers, whistles and horns--until the enemy counterattacked.
The men may have perished back then or just now, but their spirit lives on forever. Semper Fi.
No comments:
Post a Comment